While the academic literature on the South African HIV/AIDS epidemic has often attended to questions of race, gender, and social inequality, few books have based these conceptual concerns on an ethnographic analysis of a post-apartheid township. Mark Hunter's excellent new book addresses this lacuna through an analysis of the ways that social reproduction has been transformed alongside patterns of employment, clarifying how movement, sexual relations, and gender dynamics in South Africa have affected the spread of HIV/AIDS. Based on nearly a decade of fieldwork, this ethnography analyzes households in Sundumbili township and the informal settlements that surround the Isithembe Industrial park in the town of Mandeni, KwaZulu-Natal province. Linking the realms of ‘traditional’ and ‘modern’ South Africa through an analysis of labor, intimacy, and marriage, Hunter provides a clear analysis of the social, cultural, and economic relationships through which HIV/AIDS has been transmitted in South Africa.

The strength of Hunter's approach to HIV/AIDS in South Africa is its emphasis on understanding contemporary socio-cultural dynamics through an historical examination of social reproduction, sexual practices, and political economy. Unpacking this ‘changing political economy and geography of intimacy’ enables an analysis of the multiple ways that colonization and apartheid transformed conceptions of love and sexual roles. Particularly striking in this regard is his discussion of the ‘patriarchal bargain’ between the colonial state and ‘traditional’ male leaders that transformed practices such as lobola (bride price). Further, Hunter analyzes how the influence of Christianity and the rise of male migrant labor transformed conceptions of hlonipha (female respect) and led to the rise of the isoka (male playboy figure) in South Africa. The author's focus on the transformation of marriage and gender roles prompts an important critique of the view that black South African families ‘broke down’ in the twentieth century. The historical depth of this work underscores the reality that male migrant labor enabled the social reproduction of the black South African population, albeit via different temporal, spatial, and sexual dynamics. This approach leads Hunter to propose the concept of the ‘materiality of everyday sex’ as a way to encapsulate the dialectical tension between sexual practices and material conditions.

For the post-apartheid era, the analysis focuses on the ways that changing gender roles, sexual practices, and unemployment have structured intimate relations in South Africa. Situating intimate encounters as both sites of pleasure and a means through which to secure men's material support, Hunter posits that an unemployment crisis amongst young black South Africans has led to an increase of female dependence on male financial support, driving the inter-generational dynamics of sex in the post-apartheid era. He theorizes this historical process through the linked concepts of ‘romantic love’ and ‘provider love’. The concept of ‘provider love’ is based on Hunter's observation that male financial support for meeting the material needs of women is a historically significant practice within intimate relationships in South Africa (seen through lobola, wage remittances, and gifts), while ‘romantic love’ is predicated on Western conceptions of love, romance, and individual choice. The concept of ‘provider love’ offers a means to animate the dynamics of the sexual networks created by multiple and concurrent sexual partnerships (MCPs). Thus, Hunter provides the ethnographic foundation upon which to critique analyses that call for ‘behavior change’ and situate interventions to limit sexually transmitted infections within the social processes through which men and women meet both their sexual and material needs.

While Hunter's detailed historical account offers much needed ethnographic exploration of sexual networks, it leaves some uncertainty about how power dynamics affect the life strategies of those living in South Africa's peri-urban townships. The concept of ‘provider love’ offers an important reconceptualization of the social dynamics behind the spread of HIV/AIDS, but Hunter chooses not to explore the relationships between male employment, patriarchy, and power. Further, while the role of non-governmental organizations in the local response to the epidemic is briefly explored, Hunter largely sidesteps their role as avenues for social mobility and professionalization. Incorporating these points could allow for a clearer analysis of the limits to, and role of, international donor capital in the dynamics of class in post-apartheid townships.

In sum, Mark Hunter's work is an important contribution to the historical and anthropological literature on the South African HIV/AIDS epidemic and should be considered required reading for scholars and graduate students interested in the social, cultural, and economic dynamics of post-apartheid South Africa. The book is also suitable for upper-level undergraduate courses that focus on gender, sexuality, political economy, and health. Hunter has produced a thorough, precise, and carefully considered account of the social dynamics that lie beneath the transmission of sexually transmitted infections in South Africa; an accomplishment whose relevance should not be lost on academic researchers and public health professionals alike.